harvesting honey

We had many frames of capped honey from the contaminated hive that needed to be extracted manually. If extracted in a machine we run the risk of spreading the bacterial spores to clean frames.  I am not sure how other people do this but I took a metal spatula and scraped the comb off the wax foundation and plopped it into a large glass jar and set it out in the sun to melt. 

After two days in the sun I poured it through the strainers and into a plastic bucket with a spout attached for easy bottling.  It took about an hour to drain through the three layers of mesh strainers and the paint straining sock.  It looked like about a gallon of honey.  The wax comb got tossed into the compost and covered with straw.  The mouse that lives in the bin will be pretty excited about its sweet windfall. 

I stuck a spoon into the bucket and pulled out a spoonful of honey and noticed that it had a weird rubbery gelatinous texture.  It did not flow like honey but sort of stretched like thin jello.  It tasted fine but the texture was gross.  Not sure what is the matter with it but I do not want to give it to anyone as a gift, that is for sure.  It could be that the honey has less water in it than usual.  The bees dehydrate the nectar until it is the correct ratio of water and sugar.  Maybe this batch somehow was dehydrated too much.  I am thinking about taking a little of it and adding water to see if I can get it to the right consistency.   If that works then I will add water to the rest and have about a gallon of usable honey.  Or I can give it to my friend, Bill, who makes honey mead.  The consistency will not matter to him.  I have another batch sitting in the sun today from another box and hope it does not have the same problem.